Water Treatment
Services in
Margate, FL

Margate became a town in 1955 and a city in 1961. Its name joins the first letters of founder Jack Marqusee's surname to "gate," for a gateway to western Broward. The 2020 Census counted 58,712 residents on about nine square miles, with Coconut Creek to the east, Coral Springs to the west and north, and North Lauderdale to the south.

Most of the city went up in the 1970s, and a large share of residents live in condominiums and 55-and-over communities along Margate Boulevard, Atlantic Boulevard and Royal Palm Boulevard. That shapes what we install here: under-sink units fit condo kitchens, while houses have room for a carbon tank or a softener at the main line. The sections below walk through the City's water, then what is worth treating.

Who Supplies Water in Margate, FL

The City of Margate does (EPA system FL4060845). EPA lists 62,254 people and 16,873 service connections on the system. That is more people than live in the city, because Margate's service area also takes in the part of Coconut Creek south of Coconut Creek Parkway. On Broward County's water provider map, about 99% of the land inside Margate's city limits is Margate water; the rest is a few slivers along the borders with Coral Springs and North Lauderdale.

The City's utilities page lists 211 miles of water main and 1,953 fire hydrants in its system. Water bills come from Utilities Customer Service at 954-884-3666. Questions about water quality go to DEES at 954-972-0828 (901 NW 66th Avenue, Suite A, weekdays 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.), and the after-hours line for breaks and outages is 954-605-9812.

Your neighbors get water from different places. Coconut Creek north of the parkway buys Broward County water. North Lauderdale runs its own lime plant, Tamarac has two systems split by State Road 7, and Coral Springs is divided among four providers. So a result you read about for a neighboring city may not apply to your street.

How the City Plant on NW 66th Avenue Treats the Water

The Biscayne Aquifer is the only source. Raw water comes up from the City's 12 wells to the plant at 980 NW 66th Avenue, which has two clarifiers, each rated for 13.5 million gallons per day.

Margate has no membrane (nanofiltration or reverse osmosis) stage. Lime softening removes much of the hardness, but membranes do more against dissolved salts and against PFAS, which is why some results below look different from cities such as Deerfield Beach or Weston that filter through membranes.

Margate Water Quality Report: What Changed From 2024 to 2025

The City posts the full 2025 Margate water quality report online. Printed copies are kept at City Hall, the DEES office, the Margate Catharine Young Library and the Northwest Focal Point Senior Center.

PFAS Results: Nine Compounds Found in 2024 Testing

The August 2024 round of EPA's UCMR 5 testing at Margate's plant found nine PFAS compounds. PFOS was the highest at 28 ppt in the City's report (27.7 in EPA's data). Lime softening does little to these compounds, and the Biscayne Aquifer under north Broward carries them in measurable amounts.

Margate voters approved a $120 million water and wastewater bond in November 2024 (76.6% in favor). The first $60 million covers plant upgrades and line replacements, with most of the attention on the West Wastewater Treatment Plant, and a $30 million issue planned for 2027 is set aside for projects tied to new EPA drinking water rules. Until any plant change happens, an under-sink unit is how a household gets PFAS down at the kitchen tap; see how our reverse osmosis systems are put together. A whole-house carbon tank and a softener are not built for that job.

Chromium-6 and Chlorate From EPA's 2013–2014 Tests

Neither substance appears in the City's annual report, because neither has a federal limit. Both were measured in EPA's third round of unregulated-contaminant testing. Margate's water had hexavalent chromium (chromium-6) at 0.17 to 0.21 ppb in October 2013 and April 2014. California's limit, the only state limit in the country, is 10 ppb.

Chlorate in the same rounds ran from 303 to 430 ppb. It forms when the chlorine compounds used for disinfection break down. That is above EPA's health reference level of 210 ppb, a screening value rather than a legal limit, and it is more than ten years old. No newer public figures exist. RO reduces both chromium-6 and chlorate at the drinking tap.

Chloramine Most of the Year, Free Chlorine Each August

For about 49 weeks a year, the plant disinfects with chloramine, a mix of chlorine and ammonia that lasts longer in the pipes and gives tap water its mild pool smell. Each summer the City switches to free chlorine for about three weeks to keep bacteria from building up in the mains: August 2 to 22 in 2022, August 1 to 21 in 2023, and July 29 to August 19 in 2024. The smell gets stronger during those weeks, and hydrant flushing at the same time can turn the water cloudy or tinted for a few hours.

A whole-house catalytic carbon filter takes out both chloramine and free chlorine at every faucet and shower, so the August change goes mostly unnoticed. It also protects softener resin, which chloramine wears down over the years.

Is Margate Water Hard or Soft?

The answer is probably moderately hard, but the City does not publish a finished hardness number, so measure before you buy a softener. The starting point is known: U.S. Geological Survey samples from wells around Margate in the 1970s and early 1980s mostly measured 160 to 400 mg/L as calcium carbonate, roughly 9 to 23 grains per gallon, before any treatment. Lime softening at the plant removes a large part of that.

Figures you may see online, such as 14 to 16 grains or 18.5 grains, do not come from the City. The free test reads hardness at your faucet, and if it supports a softener, our water softener installations are sized to that number and your household, usually 48,000 to 64,000 grains on a Fleck or Clack valve with 10% crosslink resin. If the reading is low, we'll tell you a softener isn't worth it.

1970s Condos, 55+ Communities and Lead Solder

Margate is a 1970s city. The Census (American Community Survey, 2020–2024) counts about 26,400 housing units, and 11,633 of them, 44%, were built between 1970 and 1979. The median year built is 1978. About 79% of homes predate 1990, and only around 2,400 were built after 1999. Roughly 9,300 units sit in buildings of ten or more, 11,500 are detached houses, and 953 are mobile homes. Three in four homes are owner-occupied, and the median resident age is 45.

The condo side of the city includes 55-and-over communities such as the Oriole Golf and Tennis Club communities on Margate Boulevard, Oriole Gardens, Holiday Springs in the northwest corner, Palm Lakes, Coral Gate and Royal Park Gardens. For condos, the Water Wizards FAQ notes that a whole-house system needs access to the unit's main line plus association approval, which is why most condo owners here begin with an under-sink RO or carbon unit.

On lead: the federal ban on lead solder in drinking water plumbing passed in 1986, so a home plumbed before then may have solder joints that contain it. That covers a large share of Margate's housing. The City's sampling shows low lead across the system, but it can't account for the plumbing inside each unit. For homes and condos built before 1986, we send a first-draw sample to a certified lab at no charge.

Water Filtration, RO and Softening Options

What Each System Costs Installed

From Free Test to Installed System

Water Treatment Service Area in Margate

Frequently Asked Questions